Non-laser area denial super high output floodlights

[RedCowboy]

Looking to build some insanely bright home security floodlights.

I have found what I want to use, but if anyone knows of anything cool do post it.

 

[Dr_Evil]

I'd trust a prostitute that says she doesn't have STDs more than I'd trust those lumen numbers in those first two links.

 

[RedCowboy]

Yes I know they lie, Thanks.

 

[Cyparagon]

A few 1kW Halogen lamps would be cheapest and easiest. Is that what you're doing?

 

[RedCowboy]

We have a 12v multiple deep cycle battery backup power plant and inverters for emergency power and like to use low voltage devices as much as possible.

I also have a couple gasoline generators, maybe we will get a natural gas unit someday but our outages are probably a dozen times a year and not for more than a few hours, but during an ice storm or if future civil unrest I want to have some low voltage floodlights both exterior and interior such as at the top and bottom of the stair case and at the end of hallways to provide myself with a tactically invisible vantage point, a flashlight on my rifle is not what I want.

So I may augment floodlights outside with led fixtures that are 48 volt and motion activated and use 12v automotive off road led bars and spots inside, right now we use incandescent flood lights outside and have hard wired cameras, I don't want to use radio cameras I want to stay with hard wired and may augment with some IR flood lighting for the cameras, but for the power outage units I want to go with low voltage and LED and I like the long light bars for indoor, we don't care about aesthetics but I can always paint the housings if we want to, the main idea is to be grid independent.

But we may use some conventional halogen fixtures at the corners for regular duty, right now they are incandescent and they work fine, I really want some indoor LV toys that are painfully bright.

On a side note my od+6 orange glasses from survival work well for seeing past sst-90, xml-t6 and U2 lights that are otherwise too bright to look at.

 

[Cyparagon]

I really want some indoor LV toys that are painfully bright.

You'd have to mount an obscene number of LEDs to rival the light output from a few kw of halogen.

Low voltage and high power don't go well together.

 

[RedCowboy]

Yes I know low voltage does not travel over distance worth a dam or up convert well, that's why it's 10050 into my neighborhood on a 100 amp fuse.....that blew last weekend, we hit 100 degrees outside. We have 50kw transformers for every 3 houses so for 3 x 100 amp houses at 240 that's about right.

It's half million and quarter million long distance transfer lines, 135k on the high galvanized poles. 35kv local and 10050 residential.

The industrial 3 phase is not applicable to me at this point.

I get it, and for everyday outdoor halogen is great, but to run a single 1kw halogen on dc with no inverter I could series 10 x 40 amp hour deep cycle batteries and get 5 hours, no inverters needed but how many could I run at once, half a dozen and again routing that LV around means welder cables to cut resistance.

I was thinking a high output led like the streetlights 100w that's 50% efficient? and put my battery packs at the light source with a 110v charge line for each.

Duty cycle would not be that long, hours during outages max.

 

[Cyparagon]

You said security floodlights. Make them motion activated and powered from mains. What are the odds a burglary will happen only during a power outage? If you're still concerned about that, the motion activation will mean they are only on when they need to be. If your 10 series lead-acid can power 1kW for 5 hours, that would be plenty to power 5kW for the few minutes it takes to scare off an intruder.

 

[RedCowboy]

I know you are right about the halogen, I just want to play with some bright leds, I want to find the latest and greatest industrial large area led lights and repurpose them to look like a UFO has landed in my yard, lol. Maybe some of the multi element streetlights, recently built Walmart stores have parking lot high pole arrays that are rather intense.

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I got a pair of advertised 100W outdoor LED lights in fixtures with built in power supply just for kicks to try out, I paid 39 dollars for the pair with free shipping, they run on 110 - 120 volts AC and make a nice flood of bright white light in my side yard.

I would say they are 5 times as bright as a 150W incandescent floodlight and look good, but at 120 volts AC they only draw .6 amps, so 72 watts in and maybe 25-30 watts RMS output of actual light estimated????, but they do look very bright, quite uncomfortable to look at, I did not expect them to be a real 100W of light output and I'm not disappointed for the price, the LED's are bigger and further spread out that the smaller 100W grids I have.

They do warm up fast but I will mount them and test the durability, I will get some bigger industrial led lights too, but these are not bad for the price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161951899628?_trksil

p.s. My camera is shunting and not showing the brightness, but the room is flooded with bright white light.

 

[Cyparagon]

LEDs get <100lm/W in practice. 72 VA is possibly 60 watts (hard to tell without a wattmeter). You're gonna lose another few watts in the driver, so maybe 5500 lumens you've got there. 5 150W incandescent lamps at 2600 lumens each is 13000, so the numbers don't add up to the "eyeball assessment".

 

[94Z28]

Like the idea about going LED, not only will it be more efficient over halogen it'll definitely last longer. I cannot stop burning halogen floods outside; everytime the cold rain hits the hot bulbs on the corners of my house, they go POP.. I am replacing with a LED myself on the front corner near the garage.

Goodluck with the LED's! Looks good so far.

 

[RedCowboy]

They are bright, lights up my side yard and 3 houses up the perpendicular street, way too bright to look into, I get an afterimage looking at it in the broad daylight.
Granted I am going to go way bigger but these are better than floodlights and a good price.
I found some 16000 lumen industrial fixtures but they are expensive, but the SMD' look like 3 dozen 30/30 spread out over about 3 inches.

I can and likely will build my own, the 30/30 50/50 are the size I read, I just can't get over how the auto headlights use 2 tiny leds with a little fan built in the sink.

I think as always heat will be the limiting factor, but I can do something creative.

I don't know what these street light leds are under the lens.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50W-Led-Str...hash=item1a0c10e350:m:mACIBp7sp6BznU9Z4ylunOg

These look like a bunch of SMD 30/30 size?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Warehouse-L...Replace-Metal-Halide-Lamps-400W-/361591381171
http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-power-...283428?hash=item3ac7542424:g:71YAAOSwp5JWa7ye

I ordered some of these just to play with.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-H4-Whit...ash=item41a97fa467:g:VwYAAOSwKfVXHbvy&vxp=mtr




Sorry about the unsteady camera, I was holding my tripod off the ground and getting a magnified jitter.





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LEDs get <100lm/W in practice. 72 VA is possibly 60 watts (hard to tell without a wattmeter). You're gonna lose another few watts in the driver, so maybe 5500 lumens you've got there. 5 150W incandescent lamps at 2600 lumens each is 13000, so the numbers don't add up to the "eyeball assessment".

Yea probably the color difference, plus incandescent give more wash, the intensity of these is nice, fantastic throw too and I like that for the ability to flash "temporarily" blind trespassers.